The New England Patriots struggled out of the gate to start the season, but they broke through for a big win over the red-hot Buffalo Bills, 29-26, on Sunday. The win was a breakthrough for the Patriots, who held Josh Allen to just 233 yards and one touchdown while forcing one interception. Allen also struggled on the ground, averaging just 0.8 yards per carry, though he did score one rushing touchdown on his five carries for 4 yards.
While Drake Maye had a solid game, throwing for 269 yards and three touchdowns with only one interception and rushing for 54 yards on eight carries, including a 26-yard run, Boston Herald Patriots reporter and columnist Andrew Callahan believes the defense was the real star in this matchup.
Callahan reviewed the film and broke down the defensive coverages the Patriots played that stifled Josh Allen's impact.
Article Continues Below“The Pats cut their man coverage rate by almost half against the Bills. Doing so achieved several objectives, namely it kept their defensive backs from chasing problematic pre-snap motions and pick-route combinations, kept more eyes on Allen and limited his scrambling to four total rushing yards. To combat Allen's frequent rolls to the right, the Patriots also used overload fronts stacked to that side and occasionally assigned inside linebacker Christian Elliss to be a spy.”
Conneahan also saw another benefit in the Patriots not blitzing, arguing it allowed them to create confusion as Josh Allen read the field.
“Not blitzing also allowed the Patriots to toggle more effectively between disguises, which were often well-executed and bought their four-man pass rush time to get home as Allen tried to determine what coverage they were playing. Kuhr worked almost exclusively out of Cover 3 early on, which presented pre-snap like a common man-to-man defense, Cover 1. Later, Kuhr dialed up more Cover 2 and a handful of blitzes that finished with close to a 50/50 split of man and zone coverage behind them.”